


ye held me close, ye held me tight

by Fluffypanda



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, I repeat, Implied/Referenced Suicide, M/M, No Character Death, Selkie!Tony, Selkies, TONY IS A SELKIE
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-05
Updated: 2018-04-05
Packaged: 2019-04-16 20:04:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 732
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14172414
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fluffypanda/pseuds/Fluffypanda
Summary: Steve returns to the rocky shore where he first met Tony.





	ye held me close, ye held me tight

**Author's Note:**

> For my free space in N4 on my Fairy Tale Bingo card. I drew from a few different stories about selkies for this one, including the ballad quoted at the end. Also a fill for S3 - first time on my regular bingo card.
> 
> Originally on tumblr [here](http://ayapandagirl.tumblr.com/post/171945029048/ye-held-me-close-ye-held-me-tight)

Waves crashed over the sides of the fishing boat, nearly drowning out the cries of the gulls and gannets. The sky overhead was grey with sympathy, casting a dull haze over the world and softening the hard edges of the skerry up ahead.

Steve’s arms burned with the single-minded effort of keeping his small vessel on course. Paradoxically he could distantly feel his heart pounding, even though he knew it to be a leaden lump in his chest, weighed down with all he lost.

Sometimes it seemed impossible to carry on with such a burden, but he shouldered it as he always did, propelling his little boat through the indifferent ocean’s waves.

At last Steve’s boat hit the rocks lining the Landing Place on the south side of Suleskerry. More out of habit than anything else, he secured his boat to the docks before hiking up the slippery stairs to the skerry proper.

It was just as he remembered it, when he set foot there more than a year ago, large, for something that was hardly more than a patch of dirt and grass on a collection of rocks. The lighthouse rising up out of the mayweed near the center of the isle was the only thing of note.

Steve remembered thinking it was pretty in a bleak way, that first visit, but now he just thought it bleak.

The wind blew his hair this way and that as he traversed the soggy turf along the same path he took during his first visit. His feet stumbled as he came up on the sheltered inlet where he first saw him. Part of him expected him to be there, sitting on the rocks and dripping with ocean water.His breath caught in his throat as he recalled the silky sensation of sealskin and the dimpled flesh beneath it under his fingers, the breaths, hot and heavy, between them, the pleading look in his love’s eyes as he pressed the sealskin into Steve’s hands, the shock returning home to find it empty and the sealskin gone.

Steve scrabbled across the rocks, still mirroring the path he took so long ago.

Tony was never coming back, he knew that. Yet, being here, where they had so many firsts, made him feel closer to him.

Looking out at the frigid sea, he knew now that this was always where it was going to end for him. He supposed he should be grateful it was here rather than the wreckage of the Valkyrie.

Like a cork pulled from a bottle, something inside loosened at the thought. Hot tears welled in his eyes, blurring his vision. One then another streamed down his cheeks and fell into the ocean as he continued past Tony’s rock, right on into the chilly waters of the North Atlantic. Three more fell as he cleaved to the side of the rock, shivering.

Ever since he struggled free of the Red Skull’s plane and found the years had gone by without him, he’d felt out of place. He went looking for a new home, a new life, and had been drawn here. He took a deep breath, blinking away his tears with his head hung low. His fate was out in these waters. A teardrop silently hit the water and another trailed down to brush Steve’s lips just has he plunged headfirst into the waves.

The cold was all-consuming; any trace of warmth was a distant memory in these waters. Steve surrendered himself to it.

A shadow passed above him, growing larger every second. Then suddenly strong arms embraced him, pulling him back to the surface.

They emerged with a desperate gasp for air. Seawater rushed into Steve’s mouth and he was pulled higher as he coughed and spluttered. Treading water, Steve clung to those familiar shoulders, still wrapped in their sealskin. Tony smiled at him.

“I missed you,” Steve managed, still a little breathless. His heart fluttered just like the first time he laid eyes on him.

A hand came up to cradle Steve’s cheek. “I know.”

Then Tony’s lips were upon Steve’s in a searing kiss. Steve gladly lost himself in the salty-sweet taste of Tony’s mouth as they held each other tight.

 

_“I’m a man upon the land, I’m a selkie in the sea; and when I’m far frae every stand, my dwelling is in Suleskerry.”_

**\- The Great Selkie o’ Suleskerry**


End file.
